


World's Okayest Mathematician

by Zakodia



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, One use of the f-word, Poetry, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 12:31:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13740918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zakodia/pseuds/Zakodia
Summary: It's Valentine's Day at the Shatterdome.HermannhatesValentine's Day.





	World's Okayest Mathematician

Hermann wasn’t feeling great already, but now he was feeling downright awful upon walking into the mess and realizing that today was Valentine’s Day.

“Stupid made up holiday,” he grumbled to himself while eating.

 But it was the middle of the war, and the Shatterdome would take any excuse to celebrate; made-up holidays included. The mess was decorated to the brim with hearts and flowers, and Hermann had already accepted several pieces of candy from excited techs. The candy he would accept; the awkward declarations and celebration of an emotion he was currently working very hard on denying, not so much.  Hermann liked to pretend that he had never been in love; but there was one brightly colored, obnoxiously loud, incessantly annoying, kaiju loving, problem with that theory, and its name was Newton Geizler. He really didn’t need to be reminded of his inability to tell Newton how he felt. Sure, he had a few flings here and there, but he had always severed it when it got too close. He didn’t need anyone knowing his personal life, and he definitely did not need help dealing with it. It was too dangerous to get attached, too painful - at least that was the current line of thought on the subject. Still grumbling from breakfast, and with Newt nowhere in sight, Hermann was surprised to find a small box on top of his desk. It had a card on top which read,

 “Roses are red, Kaiju are blue, I know you pretend to hate me, but I still love you” The note didn’t have a name on it but Hermann surmised it was from Newt. There was no one else he was pretending to hate more than him.

Intrigued, but a little frightened of what might be inside, Hermann opened the box. Inside was a mug that said “World’s Okayest Mathematician” in large black letters.  Hermann sighed out of relief, it was not kaiju parts, thank goodness, and laughed to himself a little. He was definitely more than okay at math. He put the mug down and proceeded to open his desk drawer to find his chalk. Inside he found a new box of chalk inside with another card that said,

“Put on your glasses

I’m picking up the pieces

From our lives before”

Hermann had never thought of Newton as a poet, but with the amount of words that man said, statistically some of them must sound good together eventually. This was the second card referring to their relationship, and since before what? Hermann wondered. Before the war? Before the emails? Before they met for the first time? Hermann had to admit it was probably the last one.  Emails forced them to focus their energy on the words, the science, without anything extra. No side comments, sarcasm, or general shouting. It was hard to keep up an argument with a time delay. In person however, that was a different story. Hermann realized he had acted very immaturely upon seeing that Newton was not the person he had imagined or expected. They had been sent by the PPDC to a conference combining all information about the kaiju. They had never actually met in person yet, so it would be their first introduction. They had both secretly attended the other’s talk and had a huge argument in the hotel lobby about their topics, and were almost forcibly removed both from the hotel and the conference. It definitely did not go as either of them had planned.  But Hermann learned something important that night, Newton would never give up, no one would ever be able to stop him. And that, that was something Hermann could appreciate. He saw that in himself, and he appreciated someone that could take him on mentally. But that first meeting had also set up a precedent for arguments between them. At first it had actually been out of anger and frustration. Hermann wished Newt was less, well, Newt-like; and Hermann could imagine that Newt was pissed at him about that, because who cared how he sounded over email right? He was still the same person, with the same brain and the same smarts, just different looking. But over time Hermann had become accustomed to Newt’s eccentricities and the arguments had become a game, a distraction from the horrors around them. It was a challenge to see how far the other would go, to see if anyone would ever call mercy.  And now standing there staring at his mug and the box of chalk in his hand, Hermann realized the game had changed again. It had become a teasing, a flirting, a culmination of all the years before. The game Hermann had tried to ignore for so long, and now on this day of all days, Newt had the nerve to make the first move. He tried to convince himself it was joke, or a prank someone else was playing on him, but he knew that wasn’t the case. He threw himself into his work for the day, while also compiling a list of things to say to Newton once he finally appeared from wherever he was, probably asleep. None of them were very nice.

Hermann barely glanced away from the chalkboard when he heard the door to the lab open; it was finally time. He still hadn’t figured out what to say, despite focusing several hours on it while trying to distract himself with actual work. He was pretending to be upset, but he knew he couldn’t hide his true feelings for long, especially when he climbed down the ladder to finally see Newt. All of his anger disappeared in an instant and he hated that someone could have this kind of power over him - but fuck did Newt look good. Newt had, somehow, found a clean and ironed white shirt to wear, jeans that were one color of black, not bleached or kaiju blued, and - most inexplicitly to Hermann - he had brushed his hair. His tattoos looked brighter and better than they ever had, which Hermann would never admit to thinking, or saying out loud. He could only stare awkwardly and wish that he was forever in this moment, and simultaneously running away from this strange but alluring sight.

“Uh….Happy Valentine’s Day?” Newt said questioningly.

“Oh yes, it is Valentine’s Day isn’t it?” Hermann replied trying to act nonchalant like the topic had not been consuming his thoughts currently.

“Come on man, don’t lie! You knew it was today, the mess was crazy decorated! And I see you found your stuff.” Newt gestured towards Hermann desk, and the obviously opened box of chalk.

“Yes……yes…. I did find those. Thank you, I suppose? I guess I just didn’t realize that you felt…..that we were…..” he finished off with some general hand gesture between them, which he knew was awkward, but Newt had decided to make the first move so he would let him continue with it.

Newt’s face showed he was more than a little hurt and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeahhhh, I guess I was just trying to make up for what a dick I’ve been. I know I’m not the easiest person to work with, and I know I drive you more than a little nuts.” He started to pace on his side of their yellow line, “and I saw that mug online a few weeks ago and I was like, huh, I should give this to Hermann. But it’s weird to randomly give your lab partner gifts right? Right. So, I started looking on my calendar for holidays and the closest one was Valentine’s; which is the absolute _worst_ day, but I thought well, now or never! Fortune favors the brave and fuck it and all that. Anyways, I guess what I’m trying to get at is that we have something, right? Like I felt it in the emails but then we met that first time and whew that went badly. I was convinced you outright hated me for like a year after that, like I’m pretty sure you did hate me. But it got better and I started getting my hopes up, which judging by your reaction currently, was not a great thing to do.” He stopped directly in front of Hermann. “Dr. Hermann Gotllieb.  I am completely and hopelessly in love with you, and I am hoping you feel the same way about me. It’s been this way for a long time, but I’ve decided that I would rather go through this war knowing than wondering. So, I will ask you now, will you go out with me tonight? And by go out with me, I mean go on top of the roof, smoke cigarettes, drink a beer and stare at Hong Kong?”

Hermann stepped over the line, grabbed Newt by the front of his shirt and imparted upon him the most passionate kiss he had ever felt.

When they finally broke apart, Newt gasped “I’m…..I’m…..gonna take that as a yes?”

“I would love nothing more.” Hermann whispered in his ear.

They went up to the roof and, while staring at Hong Kong, relived their history. They played out that disastrous first meeting from each perspective and Hermann did admit that he had hated/loved Newt in those first actual years. But he also confided that the love eventually outweighed the hate and he had grown extremely fond of him, obviously. Laughing, they retired to Hermann’s room.

The next morning, Newt softly kissed Hermann on the cheek in bed. “

Was that the best Valentine’s Day ever or what?” He asked, his head lying on Hermann’s chest.

“It was indeed, still my least favorite holiday, however.”

Newt sighed as Hermann stroked his hair, “Well there’s always next year to convince you otherwise huh?”

Hermann chuckled, no one knew him better than Newton Geizler.


End file.
